Monitoring Of Internet Communications By Educational Institutions

Reprinted with permission from FindLaw.com

Faculty, administrators and students often use the IT systems of educational institutions to gain access to the Internet, to visit Web sites and to send and receive emails. That is all well and good. The question arises, though, as to how much educational institutions should monitor the use of such IT systems.

Educational institutions do have an interest in ensuring that their IT systems are used properly and for legitimate purposes. For example, educational institutions do not want their IT systems to be used by faculty to allow intellectual property belonging to the institutions to be disseminated to the outside world, and they do not want students and others associated with the institutions to engage in improper speech that defames others. Monitoring of IT systems can deter such behavior and can root out problems.